MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2020) The Russian Foreign Ministry expects a series of parliamentary events to take place in the near future, including the parliamentary summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2020 and the Eurasian Women's Forum in the following year, senior Russian diplomat Alexei Golub said on Tuesday.
"In the future, we expect a number of events to take place on the parliamentary level: the parliamentary summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization this year; and the major Eurasian Women's Forum, which ... can be considered global and in the organization of which the Federation Council [the upper house of the Russian parliament] takes part actively, next [year]," Golub, deputy director of the Department for Liaisons with the Constituent Entities of the Federation, the Parliament and Public Associations of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said during a round table discussion at the Federation Council.
The diplomat added that apart from these events, the World Conference on Inter-Religious and Inter-Ethnic Dialogue will be organized by Russia in 2022.
The deputy director also recalled that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had constantly participated in meetings with government officials at the Russian parliament, as well as held meetings with the leadership of both houses.
"Unfortunately, the regular meeting that the minister had been having over the past five years with Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko and the leadership of the [upper] house could not take place this year. I am sure that this practice will be resumed," Golub said.
The diplomat also said that the Foreign Ministry always considered parliamentary diplomacy and interaction with lawmakers to be the most important component of the effective implementation of Russia's foreign policy. In addition, Golub noted the importance of international interparliamentary cooperation, which brings significant results both at the regional and international levels.
